Ten years after…

I don’t know when they started making these lovely chicken pies…

…but I first stumbled upon it in 2010, around ten years ago, and it was, without the shadow of a doubt, love at first bite! I liked it so much and wasted no time at all in blogging about it.

Well, the other day, I was in the vicinity and as I was driving past, I noticed that there was a vacant parking space right in front of the bakery. I stopped right away, parked my car and went towards the shop. Like many of the shops around here, they have blocked the entrance and would not allow customers to go in. You still have to go through the required SOP though – check your temperature, scan your MySejahtera or jot down your details in a notebook (and sanitise your hands) after which, you tell them what you want and they will get for you and you pay them the money for your loot and leave.

Obviously, because of the pandemic, they are not making as many things as on normal days. There were some cakes and buns in the glass display cabinet, visible from the front of the shop. Their counter in the middle of the shop was empty except for a few trays of the chicken pies and no, they did not have those coconut tarts…

…that I like a lot but it did not matter as those are sweet and right now, I’m cutting down on my sugar intake so those would have to be avoided.

I asked for the number of pies that I wanted, paid for them and left. As far as I can remember, way back in 2010, they were RM2.80 each and there were peas in the filling plus a layer of meat floss on top right below the pie cover and the pie had a slight mound on top because of the amount of filling. No, it is quite flat these days so evidently, the filling now is less. It still tastes really great though but there are no more peas, no meat floss, just some bits of carrot with the chunks of chicken and potatoes…

…in the lovely creamy sauce and the price has been consistently going up and up year after year – at this point in time, it is going for RM4.50 each, up from RM4.20 when I bought it in May last year!!!

The shortcrust pastry is still as good as before and all things considered, I do think it…

…is worth buying to enjoy once in a while.

We had a few of them for breakfast the next morning and the ladies were grumbling that they were no longer as good as before and insisted that those West Malaysian-made Australian ones…

…were very much nicer. Well, those are good too (the chicken ones – we do not like their black pepper) but they are around double the price at over RM14.00 for a pack of two, over RM7.00 each.

I guess as long as we can jolly well afford it, we shall go on buying them, either one, to enjoy, depending on where we are and whichever is convenient. After all, at a time like this, there isn’t much we can spend our money on and there is no way we can go anywhere, no travelling to any place in the foreseeable future and it is good to pamper and console ourselves sometimes.

AROMA BAKERY (2.311151, 111.831515) is located at No. 36 (G/F), Taman Damai along Jalan Dewan Suarah, the second shop in the block on your right as you enter from Jalan Melur, after the Maju Tyre shop.